Courselite has written a very thoughtful post, and I agree with a lot of it.

But some of it, I don't. I firmly believe that it's quite possible to garner long-term profits ranging far beyond what the ubiquitous short-term grab can yield! I believe it can be done the same way top-tier, high-prestige schools have done it in other countries: You consistently offer a high-quality program taught by well-qualified and well-compensated teachers, in a well-equipped, well-managed school that actually sticks to the standards they set.

It takes time for this approach to work...Oxford didn't become Oxford in 3 months. You have to wait for the results to start coming out, for people to start seeing the difference made in their graduates, as they start outperforming other schools' output in terms of test scores, college admissions, and other measures. As word spreads of this, the status-obsessed Chinese will be fighting and actually COMPETING to get themselves or their kids into the program, even at substantially higher tuition rates. You wind up with a highly profitable institution that will be the uncopiable (at least in the short run) envy of every other private school in China. You wind up with a trusted, golden brand name that could become the springboard to all kinds of other lucrative high-quality projects.

Unfortunately there's too much greed and impatience and stupidity for this vision to ever happen in China...and Aston is most definitely down there feeding in that same trough along with all the other sham schools.

And I know some number of teachers who would love to make long-term commitments to China and to teaching there. If a school ever decided to pursue the high end of the scale and expect more from- and pay more to- the right teachers, I think they'd find the people ready to answer the call.

But don't hold your breath...it's not in the foreseeable future. It's too much easier to hire mixed mammals, stuff them into squalid shared apartments, pay them squat...and replace them from the pipeline when they wise up enough to move on. The basic Aston business model.